New £600-750 gaming build

[EddieSG]

Hi all,

I just need help on planning a £500-£750 gaming desktop. The top end of the budget is 750 but I would like it to be as cheap as possible.

Approximate Purchase Date: Within the next month
Budget Range: £500-750
System Usage: Minecraft, Guild Wars 2, BF3 etc. and FRAPS
Parts not required: Speakers, Keyboard, Mouse, (Laptop) hard drive
Preferred websites: aria.co.uk, scan.co.uk, overclockers.co.uk, any uk website really
Country: England
Parts preference: Intel for processor. Seasonic for PSU (or other reputable)
Overclocking: Maybe. I've never attempted it but would definitely consider it.
SLI/Xfire: Nope.
Resolution: I would like a 22" monitor... so 1920x1080?

I can use my laptop hard drive to cut down on costs- I don't know how well a 2.5" drive fits in a PC case, or if needs an adaptor of some sort? Could anyone help me out on this please? Also, if I use my Laptop HDD, do I need to buy an OS (?)

I would like either something like a i5-2500k (what mobo socket?) or something like an i3-2120 with the option of upgrading to an i5.
I'd probably like a Seasonic PSU or other reputable brand and I'd like a pretty large case too.
Ideally, I'd like the PSU and case and Motherboard to be such that I can upgrade the GPU or CPU in a few years time. However, I'm not sure how easy that would be with my budget.
8gb of RAM preferably? Perhaps Low Profile?
Not too sure on GPU's- whichever is best value for money in the price range.

Thanks for your help!
Eddie

 

[electricfirebolt]

Oh no, You'll never find anything in your budget to play...Minecraft!

 

[EddieSG]

Oh no, You'll never find anything in your budget to play...Minecraft!

Aha, I've heard it's pretty intensive...
I have to play on tiny render distance at the moment, with integrated graphics and an Intel Celeron-stone-age whatever.

 

[androidman]

Don't use your laptop hard drive - chances are that it's only 5200rpm. Massive bottleneck!!!!!


Here is a build:

Case: Silverstone SST-FT01S-W Fortress Silver = £75
CPU: i5-2500k socket 1155 = £170
HDD: Seagate ST31000524AS 1TB Hard Drive = £65
Mobo: ASUS P8H77-V LE S1155 Intel H77 = £65
GPU: EVGA 2GB GeForce GTX 670 = £350
RAM: Corsair Memory 8GB Vengeance = £45
PSU: Corsair Enthusiast TX V2 CMPSU-650TXV2UK 650W = £75

Total: £702


You do need to buy an OS with that HDD. Are you a student? MS give discounts for students which are pretty awesome! If you're at university, you can often get the OS for free!
Of course you can play with these specs, raise or lower them as you need. But it's a bloody powerful build and will max almost everything on the market at the moment.

 

[EddieSG]

I've edited the original post after reading the sticky at the top
Thanks guys!

 

[EddieSG]

Don't use your laptop hard drive - chances are that it's only 5200rpm. Massive bottleneck!!!!!


Here is a build:

Case: Silverstone SST-FT01S-W Fortress Silver = £75
CPU: i5-2500k socket 1155 = £170
HDD: Seagate ST31000524AS 1TB Hard Drive = £65
Mobo: ASUS P8H77-V LE S1155 Intel H77 = £65
GPU: EVGA 2GB GeForce GTX 670 = £350
RAM: Corsair Memory 8GB Vengeance = £45
PSU: Corsair Enthusiast TX V2 CMPSU-650TXV2UK 650W = £75

Total: £702


You do need to buy an OS with that HDD. Are you a student? MS give discounts for students which are pretty awesome! If you're at university, you can often get the OS for free!
Of course you can play with these specs, raise or lower them as you need. But it's a bloody powerful build and will max almost everything on the market at the moment.

Hi, I'm afraid I need a monitor so you'll have to factor that in :/
Is it worth getting something like a gtx 560ti? Only because, although the gtx 670 is a beast, its twice the price but at that range isn't it less value for money?

 

[Launde]

Don't use your laptop hard drive - chances are that it's only 5200rpm. Massive bottleneck!!!!!


Here is a build:

Case: Silverstone SST-FT01S-W Fortress Silver = £75
CPU: i5-2500k socket 1155 = £170
HDD: Seagate ST31000524AS 1TB Hard Drive = £65
Mobo: ASUS P8H77-V LE S1155 Intel H77 = £65
GPU: EVGA 2GB GeForce GTX 670 = £350
RAM: Corsair Memory 8GB Vengeance = £45
PSU: Corsair Enthusiast TX V2 CMPSU-650TXV2UK 650W = £75

Total: £702

+1 on that build. Just to fit an OS in there, you could cut down on the graphics card, and probably still be able to max most games.

 

[Launde]

Just read your post before mine. the 560ti is a good card, and I think is the one that is recommended by the producers of BF3 (might be wrong).

 

[androidman]

You can get a cheap 1080p monitor 22" for about £130. Cutting the GPU is probably the only option you really have.

560ti is a decent graphics card however I'd personally just wait till I have the extra cash, the 670 is significantly better.

 

[metal orient]

I feel your pain with minecraft, my experience of it on my laptop is abhorrent, even with everything set to minimal i get terrible framerates.

Androidman while i can appreciate your enthusiasm your build has a couple of flaws:
total price is £845
H77 chipset does not let you overclock making the 2500K irrelevent

In terms of future proofing as Haswell is coming next year and with it a new CPU socket (1150 vs 1155) you won't be able to upgrade to anything that hasn't already come out yet, as you're not going to need to upgrade your CPu for a good long time it's not a problem if you get a good one now.

Motherboard won't be a problem for GPU as they all use the PCIe slots.

PSU is actually going to be easier as each generation of graphics cards get more and more efficient so if you're only going for a single GPU then 550W is all you'll ever need.

Finally do we need to get a screen into the budget?

 

[EddieSG]

I feel your pain with minecraft, my experience of it on my laptop is abhorrent, even with everything set to minimal i get terrible framerates.

Androidman while i can appreciate your enthusiasm your build has a couple of flaws:
total price is £845
H77 chipset does not let you overclock making the 2500K irrelevent

In terms of future proofing as Haswell is coming next year and with it a new CPU socket (1150 vs 1155) you won't be able to upgrade to anything that hasn't already come out yet, as you're not going to need to upgrade your CPu for a good long time it's not a problem if you get a good one now.

Motherboard won't be a problem for GPU as they all use the PCIe slots.

PSU is actually going to be easier as each generation of graphics cards get more and more efficient so if you're only going for a single GPU then 550W is all you'll ever need.

Finally do we need to get a screen into the budget?

Thanks for that! And yes, a screen is needed. 22" is preferable!
Thanks

 

[metal orient]

Put this together on aria.co.uk and dabs.com:

aria.co.uk:
MICROSOFT Windows Home Premium 7 SP1 64-bit EN 1pk - OEM
22" ASUS VE228H Widescreen LED Monitor - Black
ARIANET StealthX Black Midi Tower Chassis
GIGABYTE GA-H61MA-D3V GEN3 Intel H61 (REV B3) Socket 1155 DDR3 PCI-Express Motherboard

£270.46

dabs.com:

Crucial 8GB (2 x 4GB) Ballistix Sport DDR3 1600MHz CL9 1.5v 240pin
Quicklinx:7Y8SWS00 | Mfr#: BLS2CP4G3D1609DS1S00CEU
In stock £34.99 £34.99

Sapphire Technology ATI Radeon 7850 860MHz 2GB PCI-Express 3.0 HDMI
Quicklinx:80T9WS00 | Mfr#: 11200-00-20G
In stock £179.98 £179.98

Seagate 1TB Barracuda SATA 6Gb/s 64MB 7200RPM Hard Drive
Quicklinx:7XD5Q200 | Mfr#: ST1000DM003
In stock £64.99 £64.99

XFX 550 Watt Core Edition Full Wired 80+ Bronze PSU
Quicklinx:7NSWQ200 | Mfr#: P1-550S-UKB9
Ordered upon request £47.98 £47.98

Intel Core i5-2300 2.80GHz LGA1155 6MB
Quicklinx:79Q5Q200 | Mfr#: BX80623I52300
In stock £137.98 £137.98

£466.91

Final price: (with VAT and P&P) £737.37

 

[androidman]

I feel your pain with minecraft, my experience of it on my laptop is abhorrent, even with everything set to minimal i get terrible framerates.

Androidman while i can appreciate your enthusiasm your build has a couple of flaws:
total price is £845
H77 chipset does not let you overclock making the 2500K irrelevent

In terms of future proofing as Haswell is coming next year and with it a new CPU socket (1150 vs 1155) you won't be able to upgrade to anything that hasn't already come out yet, as you're not going to need to upgrade your CPu for a good long time it's not a problem if you get a good one now.

Motherboard won't be a problem for GPU as they all use the PCIe slots.

PSU is actually going to be easier as each generation of graphics cards get more and more efficient so if you're only going for a single GPU then 550W is all you'll ever need.

Finally do we need to get a screen into the budget?

Appalling mental maths on my behalf!
However the 2500 is fine without overclocking however I guess you may as well use the 2300 in that case now I think about it.

 

[EddieSG]

If I was to include an OS and 22" monitor in the £750, would you guys have any build recommendations? I probably wouldn't need 1TB- I've only used 150GB in the last 3 years- but if you recommend it then meh

 

[androidman]

1tb is standard nowadays- get a small SSD otherwise!

 

[Launde]

I probably wouldn't need 1TB- I've only used 150GB in the last 3 years- but if you recommend it then meh

Exactly! I thought the exact same thing, but androidman is right. 1tb is pretty standard now. even those cheapo dell computers have 1tb now May as well keep up!

 

[EddieSG]

Exactly! I thought the exact same thing, but androidman is right. 1tb is pretty standard now. even those cheapo dell computers have 1tb now May as well keep up!

Aha yep, wouldn't want to get left behind

 

[EddieSG]

I've come up with this build:

OS: http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Software/Operating+Systems/MICROSOFT+Windows+Home+Premium+7+SP1+64-bit+EN+1pk+-+OEM+%5BGFC-02050%5D+?productId=38272

HDD: http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Storage/Hard+Drives+-+Internal/3.5+Inch+SATA+Drives/640GB+-+1TB/1TB+Seagate+Barracuda+3.5%22+SATA+III+Internal+Hard+Drive+%5BST31000524AS%5D+?productId=44143

CD Drive: http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Storage/Optical+Drives/DVDRW+Dual+Layer+-+SATA/LG++24x+Internal+DVDRW+GH24NS90+SATA+Black+Bare+with+m-Disk+Support+?productId=49545

RAM: http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Memory+-+RAM/DDR3/Dual+Channel+-+%281600MHz%29/Corsair+Vengeance+Low+Profile+8GB+%282x4GB%29+DDR3+PC3-12800C9+1600MHz+Dual+Channel+Kit+%28CML8GX3M2A1600C9%29+?productId=45511

Monitor: http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Monitors+%26+TVs/22+inch+Monitors/22%22+ASUS+VE228H+Widescreen+LED+Monitor+-+Black+?productId=48452

CPU: http://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials/Other+products/Intel+Core+i5-2500K+3.30GHz+%28Sandybridge%29+Socket+LGA1155+Unlocked+Processor+-+Retail+?productId=43216

GPU: http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1gb-msi-hd-6850-oc-4400mhz-gddr5-gpu-820mhz-960-stream-processors-2x-dvi-hdmi-dp

Mobo: http://www.scan.co.uk/products/gigabyte-ga-z68ap-d3-intel-z68-s-1155-ddr3-sata-iii-6gb-s-sata-raid-pcie-20-(x16)-atx-plusfree-16gb-

PSU: http://www.scan.co.uk/products/650w-psu-coolermaster-gx-rs650-acaae3-uk-85-eff-80-plus-bronze-sli-crossfire-eps-12v-quiet-fan-atx-v

Air Cooler: http://www.scan.co.uk/products/coolermaster-hyper-212-evo-4-heat-pipes-direct-contact-with-120mm-quiet-fan-lga775-1155-1156-1366-am

If my calculations are correct that comes to £697.45, with £50 left over for a case.

What do you guys think? And what recommendations would you have for a case? Antec 300?

Thanks again